


all the good girls go to hell

by sun_summoning



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Akumatized Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-21 13:21:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21075554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sun_summoning/pseuds/sun_summoning
Summary: #1 Ladybug is akumatized on live television and it’s utterly demoralizing.#2 Her name is Antibug and that’s only a little big insulting. Not only is she named after an akuma meant to be her opposite, but the original holder of that title was Chloe.#3 "You turned me into a guardian," Ladybug seethes. "You took my youth and you’ve already taken my future."(An anthology exploring different ways Marinette might turn. All chapters stand alone.)





	1. Ladybug

Ladybug is akumatized on live television and it’s utterly demoralizing.

She rarely lets these press conferences happen, but sometimes it’s easier to agree than to continue avoiding. She’s answered question after question, been idolized and commercialized and disturbingly sexualized. 

She had to turn down Alya’s invitation to join her for this, much to her best friend’s disappointment. She said it was to play video games with her dad, but she’d told him that she had a study group with a few others to get away from him too. And to get away from the study group, she said she had work at the bakery. But Marinette really needs to study and she misses doing things she considers fun and she knows the majority of her relationships are currently hanging on by a thread.

The question that makes her freeze is this: Can Paris rely on Ladybug sticking around for the next five years? Ten? Forever?

It’s a strange question, a needy question, but trust Alya to care. Ladybug supposes a lack of Ladybug would put the Ladyblog’s own value into question, after all. 

It’s not difficult to picture still being Ladybug three, four, five years from now and still not making any progress. They only react, after all. They’ve never really tried stopping the problem. But what would happen then? Marinette would be in university, Marinette would be working, Marinette would, hopefully, still have friends. She starts to shake as she considers all the pathetic lies she’s had to use over the years of being Ladybug and all the ones she’ll have to use in the future. 

How many friendships will she ruin? How much love will she lose? How many classes will she miss? How many internships will she inevitably be fired from because you can flake on friends and disappoint your parents but somehow career consequences feel that much realer? 

“Ladybug—” Chat Noir says nothing more, just roughly yanking her away from the podium. 

She doesn’t even notice though. Being Ladybug has chipped away at so much. Her relationships, her resolve, her sleep, and on her dark days, her empathy. It’s so easy to think “why can’t you just save yourselves?” before she remembers her call, her heart, her duty, and she suits up and saves the day.

But she’s so _tired_. She’s already burnt out, and she cannot possibly fathom being Ladybug during her baccalaureate exams or when starting her career or when _maintaining_ her career.

“Ladybug?!” 

There are panicked cries of her name but she barely hears them, as if there’s cotton in her ears and she isn’t all that inclined to take it out because then she’ll need to do something. She looks up, resigned, and is mostly confused by the horror on all the journalists’ faces. She turns to Chat Noir, and even he looks grim.

He swallows, eyes darting around like he’s actually thinking, like maybe he’ll pull his weight this time. He’s not stupid and he does pull through for her usually, but Ladybug does most of the planning and sometimes that drives her crazy.

“What—”

“Don’t move,” he grinds out. 

Ladybug frowns but she listens. And it’s when Alya pushes through the crowd of reporters to get closer, camera at the ready and morbid awe on her face, that Ladybug finally hears the flapping of wings by her ears.

She’s not unfamiliar with the process. She’s seen it, undone it, almost undergone it. Twice has Hawkmoth has sent his akuma after her and twice has she resisted. She doesn’t need his power because she has her power but…

Hawkmoth offers her a chance to end everything—to end it all now and then she can finally see her friends and go on dates and stop disappointing and stop lying. 

_You can have your life back_, he practically croons, _if you do me one little favour_.

Maybe Hawkmoth has become a better businessman, because his offer is actually tempting this time. She never cared about revenge on Lila or Chloe. They’re specks at the back of her mind at best. But a chance to act for herself for once? To finally, finally not have to serve everyone else’s interests beyond this one favour?

The last thing she remembers seeing is Chat Noir’s look of horror, his mouth stretched over an anguished cry of no. It’s enough to make her remember, to make her try to renege on her promise, but Hawkmoth already has her.

The akuma goes for the yoyo at her side, engulfing Ladybug in black.


	2. Antibug II

She's always loved the Trocadéro. She loves the sight of the Eiffel Tower, perfectly in line with the squares upon the esplanade and centred between the buildings. Sometimes she’ll sit upon the steps, but usually she’ll go down to the gardens. She can people watch and nature watch and design to her heart’s content. Paris has stunning architecture she can find with any slight turn of the head, but there’s something comforting about the design of the tiles. A square within a square within a square within a square. And, she considers, within another square. She stands in the centre of the grid and decides that this is where she’ll wait. 

Her name is Antibug and that’s only a little big insulting. Not only is she named after an akuma meant to be her opposite, but the original holder of that title was Chloe. 

This Antibug slides one red-spotted foot left, strengthening her stance. Her costume is simple and arguably silly, but just like Marinette didn’t care too much about what her hero costume looked like, she wasn't all that invested in her akuma one either.

She tosses her lucky charm in the air — a tennis ball she’d been keeping busy with — and when it lands, she finds a megaphone.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are…” 

She expects the entire armada. After all, Master Fu released nearly half a dozen kwami before for _less_.

She imagines she’s more cognizant than most akuma, strangely aware of who she is and how she became this way and what’s to come. She only hears Hawkmoth when he deigns to remind her of what she’s here to do and so far it doesn’t seem like he can tap into what she’s thinking or what she’s seeing unless she opens that line for him.

Already bored, Antibug looks down at the megaphone and wills it into something to play with. When she finds a gaming device, she grins. She’s in the middle of setting Reflekta against Princess Fragrance on Max’s game when the first strike comes. Her toy turns into a shield, effectively blocking Queen Bee’s sting, but not blocking her line of vision.

“Really?” Queen Bee takes in her getup and sneers. “You’re really _that_ unoriginal?”

Antibug scans the ones that have surrounded her and the ones who aren’t nearly as concealed as they think they are. She doesn’t find Chat Noir, but save for him, who are any of these B-team heroes to talk about originality.

“Where’s Ladybug?” Antibug asks lightly enough. Somehow she manages not to croon her question like a taunt.

As expected, Rena Rouge flinches. Presumably they all noticed they were called to work together because their leader was missing. Presumably. Antibug regards them with a sneer because the team had maybe a handful of braincells at best and all of those were Ladybug’s. They all liked to joke, to banter, to run around in costumes and say they were heroes, but none of them were particularly clever. And beyond a lack of trying, they simply did not have that necessary penchant for strategy. 

“We don’t need Ladybug for you,” Queen Bee mutters. Still, she shoots Rena Rouge and Ryūko a nervous look.

“And Chat Noir?”

Ryūko shifts into position and holds out her blade, so she’s going to be their heavy hitter. Queen Bee already wasted her sting. Carapace and Rena Rouge are positioned close together in a way that they probably thinks means they can help each other when they’re only really going to get in each other’s ways. There’s Viperion, bracelet on, lyre at the ready, and Antibug decides she’s going to take his miraculous first to avoid any resets. And then Roi Singe and Pegasus are just too new to be particularly effective in a team exercise.

Antibug sighs because fighting them is going to be such a _bore_.

“No Chat Noir?” she presses, trading her shield for a black yoyo dotted with red. Antibug hooks it on one finger and smiles. “I guess I’ll have to find him myself then.”

When she moves, Roi Singe tries to strike her with his staff, only for her to dodge. He's being hasty or he's looking for glory, and judging by the twitch of Ryūko's features, that was not the plan. They compensate by coming for her all at once, but Antibug is Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Marinette Dupain-Cheng is _Ladybug_ so she will _always_ be better than them. 

She blocks the next attack, still keeping an eye out for the only one who might have a chance of taking her down.

“Let’s hurry this up then,” Antibug says. “I don’t have time for spares."


	3. Akuma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is violent.

Hawk Moth’s careless declaration that he lost everything is what makes Ladybug snap. Gabriel Agreste rages over the corpse of his wife and the dying body of his partner and Ladybug sneers because how _dare_ this man claim he had _nothing_ left when he still had a son that loved him despite his treatment.

Adrien is at the forefront of her thoughts when she lunges for Hawk Moth. Sweet, sweet Adrien who just wanted his father’s approval. 

The protective suit of Hawk Moth’s miraculous takes the brunt of her impact, just as it keeps Ladybug’s fist from bruising. Still, she manages to knock him down.

“How _dare_ you…” 

Ladybug bends forward to pick up two metal rods, probably once part of the window that shattered before she and Chat Noir were separated. She doesn’t know where he is right now, but she can’t help but forget about him in this moment. 

“I’ve sacrificed my adolescence because of a pathetic man who can’t even see what he has left?!” 

Ladybug slams the rods down on Hawk Moth. He blocks her well enough, but she’s certain she cracked something in his right forearm by the way that he screams. He manages to wrestle one stick out of her hand. Still, she treats the remaining one like a club. Ladybug doles out a violence she’s always been against and her earrings spark red as a warning from her kwami.

With an angry shriek, Ladybug tosses the rod aside. Hawk Moth tackles her, tries to keep her down with his good arm. He rests his forearm against her throat until she can’t breathe, but Ladybug continues to slap him wildly. Then her hands find purchase on his injured arm and she squeezes until he yells and pushes away from her.

“You have a son!” she croaks as she stands. “You have a _son_!” 

She makes a noise of frustration, a shriek for all the pressure and doubt and pain she’s felt these years of defending Paris against this man. Soon Adrien fades from her mind and all she can think about are the relationships she’s ruined and the love that she’s lost. She picks up Hawk Moth’s fallen cane and almost grins at the weight of it in her hands. Her face crumples though. Her vision blurs with tears.

“_You_ took everything from _me_!” she sneers.

She beats him with his own weapon until he wrestles that away from her too. Hawk Moth is bigger than her, stronger than her, but Ladybug has been Ladybug for too long to even feel anything anymore. She claws at him, pressing down on the fractured ulna to make him hurt, trying to dig his eyes out. She thinks they must look absurd, a grown man and a teenage girl scrapping in front of a corpse and a half as she screams and screams because she’s just so _angry_.

“I never _wanted_ to be Ladybug!” she hisses, punching his injured arm hard enough that she hears an actual crack. She should revel in it, but Hawk Moth punches her so hard that she’s certain a few ribs are broken. Then he hits her head just as forcefully that she’s momentarily stunned. When she comes to, she hears the faint sound of buzzing. 

“If you’ll recall,” he croaks, “I asked you to surrender your miraculous at the very beginning.” He coughs up some blood and Ladybug does the same. “_You_ made your choice, you foolish girl.”

“I _had_ no choice!”

Ladybug is faster though. She’s lithe and quick and she maneuvers to grab his cane once again. Then she whips it against his head so hard that his skull would have caved in had he not been protected by his miraculous.

“I had no _choice_,” she cries over his fallen form. He’s still reeling from the impact, so Ladybug takes advantage of this and kicks him while he’s down. “I’ve lost friends. I barely passed classes. My parents think I’m going to be a burnout.” Ladybug shrieks, kicking him with every angry point. “You took Master Fu. You turned me into a _guardian_. You took my youth and you’ve already taken my _future_!”

Ladybug cries, breathless and broken and so, so angry. She staggers back, too tired to continue fighting, and Hawk Moth barely pulls himself into a seated position.

“Just as you keep me from mine,” he grunts, looking at his wife longingly. 

“You made your own choices!”

“Then let me give one to _you_, Ladybug.”

Hawk Moth gestures her way with his less injured arm. He looks smug despite the blood on his face and Ladybug cannot fathom why. He starts to laugh, which Ladybug can only imagine causes his pain. His grin is cruel as he considers her.

Then Ladybug hears that buzzing again.

She looks to her sides, finds nothing, but soon looks up when Hawk Moth does too. Above her, hundreds of little white butterflies flap about. They descend upon her like a tornado, their wings beating so furiously they seem to vibrate. One lands on her shoulder, but Ladybug slaps it away because she knows what it is. Then a few more come as well. She swats them off of her as they continue to feed on her rage, but there are just too many.

“They can’t keep away from you,” Hawk Moth says almost fondly. “All those negative emotions make for a good meal, after all.”

“No!” she screams, clawing at the butterflies. Every time she gets one off, it’s replaced by three more. Soon all she can see is white as the butterflies cover her from head to toe.

“Let’s try this again, Ladybug,” Hawk Moth murmurs inside her mind, bringing her back to the day this all started. 

She feels the akuma pulling at the anger and resentment she let bubble to the surface. She tries to fight the change they’re forcing upon her, refusing to become one of Hawk Moth’s puppets, refusing to be made to fight her partner, but there are too many akuma and they’re just too strong.

“Bring me your miraculous and _maybe_ I’ll set you free.”


End file.
